Love Me Love My Cat
by Kezz
Summary: Crookshanks finally gets a girlfriend. Unfortunately for Hermione she's Oliver Wood's cat.
1. Default Chapter

A/N: OK just a few pointers before we start so that the story makes sense:

1) In this story Oliver and Percy are only two years ahead of Hermione, Harry and Ron and Fred, George and friends are only a year above them.

2) Ginny is still in the year below Hermione.

3) The rating is for fairly constant mild swearing (Fred, George and Ron being the worst culprits) and for brief nudity (yummy naked Oliver shower scene!).

Disclaimer: I'm going to say this once and only once so listen carefully (er well read actually). I do not own Harry Potter or any of the other characters in the book. I am not J.K. Rowling; if I were I would be living in a huge house somewhere with lots of people employed by me to do the cleaning. As it is I live in a small three bedroom house that gets regularly trashed by my two young sons whereupon muggings here has to clean it all up.

To the wonderful people that review this measly offering; I thank you from the very bottom of my heart for taking the time to write something about my story. I suffer regularly from bouts of writers block that even heavy machinery would fail to break through, but reading a few lines from a soul who was brave enough to read something I wrote never fails to push me to try that little bit harder.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 1.

Hermione entered her dorm room and smiled softly at the sight of the two cats curled up together on her bed. Her huge ginger tom Crookshanks finally had a girlfriend it seemed. This was the third day on the trot that she had found him snuggled up against the smaller female cat.

She was a sleek shorthaired white cat with faint, light grey stripes across her back, grey paws and grey ears. Her eyes were bright blue, she was altogether gorgeous and Hermione had no idea who she belonged to. She wasn't sure how she had missed this beautiful feline before because she was truly striking.

She really didn't want to disturb the slumbering pair but she needed to find her owner. Hermione fervently prayed that whoever the owner was had had the pretty cat spayed because they seemed extremely cozy and Crookshanks was still perfectly capable of becoming a Daddy.

She sat down on the bed hoping that the cat would allow her to pick her up. To her surprise both cats immediately made their way onto her lap, butting their heads against her hands in an attempt to get her to stroke them.

"You are a lovely little thing aren't you?" she told the female as she scratched her ears.

A little later she picked her up and headed out of her dorm room with Crookshanks hot on her heels. She entered the Gryffindor common room with the cat still in her arms to find it relatively peaceful for a change. The Weasley twins were obviously still at Quidditch practice.

She headed over to Head Boy Percy Weasley who was helping his little sister Ginny with her History of Magic homework.

"Hello Percy. Hi Ginny. Do either of you know who this gorgeous cat belongs to?" she asked them.

"She's Oliver's" Percy replied without preamble, and then he looked down and spotted Crookshanks circling Hermione's legs and his eyes lit up in understanding.

"I'm not surprised that she and Crookshanks have hooked up you know, she's half Kneazle too. I don't know whether she's been spayed or not though. Oliver should still be down on the Quidditch pitch if you wanted a word with him about her." He continued.

'Bugger' Hermione thought. The last person she wanted to deal with was the Gryffindor Quidditch captain. Not only had she had a crush on the gorgeous seventh year for a long while, but she'd also had a huge row with him not two days before.

Two days before 

Hermione stood on the Quidditch pitch and watched the stretcher with Harry on it until it was out of sight and sat down heavily on the bench outside the Gryffindor changing rooms, her shaky legs no longer able to hold her upright.

Harry had fallen a massive forty feet from his broom and had been hit once again half way to the floor by the Bludger that had knocked him off of his broom in the first place. It had only been thanks to Hermione's quick thinking and mastery of the levitation spell that had her best friend hadn't hit the floor with a sickening crunch.

She was entirely sure that Draco Malfoy was yet again responsible for the rogue Bludger. Honestly, for all that the Slytherins were sneaky they obviously weren't very imaginative.

She was still sitting, shaken up by the afternoon's events when the Weasley twins emerged form the changing rooms. She didn't notice them and continued to stare sightlessly out onto the pitch that Harry had nearly died on not half an hour before.

The twins shared a look of concern before Fred sat down beside her while George crouched down in front of her.

"You alright there Hermione?" George asked her softly. Her vision refocused and she was shocked to find that the twins had settled beside and in front of her without her even noticing.

"Oh hi, sorry I didn't even notice you there." She confessed.

"Where is the rest of the team?" she asked.

"The girls have already gone up to the infirmary to check on Harry and Wood's trying to drown himself in the showers again. We tried to get him to come out and see Harry with us but he's not budging." Fred explained.

All of a sudden all of Hermione's lingering fear vanished and she was left with a raging fury. She rose from the bench and to the twin's utter shock stormed straight into the changing rooms! The twins took one shocked look at each other and ran after her.

The hiss of the shower told her that Oliver was still in there and she stomped straight into the boy's showers without a second thought.

Oliver was leaning his forehead against the wall with the water from the showerhead streaming down his well muscled bare back when Hermione found him. She stopped short for a moment at the very enticing sight before her, but her anger soon overrode her lustful thoughts.

"I'd like a word when you've finished feeling sorry for yourself." She told him calmly, not noticing or caring that the twins had caught up with her and were trying to get her attention.

She was far too calm as far as Fred and George were concerned. Especially considering the sixteen-year-old girl they thought of as their sister was talking to their butt naked captain who was two years her senior and something of a Hogwarts heartthrob.

Both of them were wondering just what Hermione had been up to that allowed their little brother's bookworm best friend to be so comfortable around naked men. It was a worrying thought.

The only thing that could have stunned Oliver more than finding a very pissed off Hermione Granger standing just outside of the showers reach, demanding to speak to him was if Snape had entered the showers wearing a thong bikini and declared his undying love for him. In his embarrassment he scrambled to cover himself with a towel and regain some of his dignity.

Hermione rolled her eyes. "Oh please. It's not like you've got anything I haven't seen before."

Oliver gaped almost comically before finally exclaiming; "But you're barely sixteen!"

Hermione was unfortunately too angry to appreciate what a humorous picture he made. The twins however were not, chuckling none too discreetly George and Fred both noticed the odd expression he wore upon hearing what Hermione said.

His face was contorted in a mixture of disbelief and what appeared to be fury. George could only wonder as to why Oliver would appear so angry at the idea of Hermione being experienced enough to have seen naked men before.

"Ginny isn't the only one with male siblings you know. Well technically Nate isn't my brother because he's adopted, not that that makes any difference and Daniel isn't my brother he's my uncle, but he's only eight years older than me and he's so immature you'd think he was younger. And I mean honestly how hard is to wrap a towel around yourself tight enough to stop it falling off half way down the hall anyway?" she rambled.

"Huh?" was pretty much all Oliver could manage; he was still too stunned at what Hermione had first told him about having seen more than one naked man.

All he'd picked up from her more recent ramblings was something about an adopted brother, a really immature uncle and towels that kept falling off. Truthfully he wasn't sure he **wanted** to know anymore.

"What I was trying to say was that you need to get your backside out of that shower and get up to the infirmary to see Harry right now. You know I've bitten my tongue so many times over the last four years that I'm surprised that I haven't bitten it off.

Harry was just a first year when he joined the team and he had no idea of what he was doing but you let him play anyway. Then in the second year he broke his arm after you told him to 'get the snitch or die trying'.

Third year you let him carry on playing even after his brush with the Dementors and this isn't the first time you've stayed down here drowning your sorrows over a lost match while Harry sits in the infirmary getting his injuries tended to and thinking that you blame him for the loss of the match.

Now get dressed and get up there and tell him that it's not his fault before I find a curse that will render you incapable of ever playing Quidditch again." She yelled at him before turning around and storming back out of the changing rooms.

Oliver, Fred and George stood staring after her in stunned silence for a good five minutes after she was gone, too shocked to do anything but gape at the doorway she'd left through.

Finally Fred said; "I think you'd better do as she said mate. Knowing her she probably really does know a curse that could stop you playing Quidditch."

Oliver nodded dumbly and a short while later he was dried, dressed and on his way to the infirmary.

When he got there Hermione was sat on the edge of Harry's bed laughing along with him at some joke Ron had just told them both. The rest of the team having been and gone, it was just Hermione, Ron and Harry's girlfriend Ginny left in the infirmary with him.

When she spotted the three older boys heading towards Harry's bed, Hermione quickly said her goodbyes and got up to leave.

As she and Oliver crossed paths he grabbed her arm to pull her closer and whispered something in her ear. Harry, Ron and Ginny could only gawp at them in confusion as Hermione looked up into the handsome seventh years face before nodding hesitantly and carrying on out of the infirmary after Oliver reluctantly released her.

"What was that all about?" Harry asked him as he finally reached his bed.

"Nothing much" Oliver grinned, "I was just asking Hermione if we could continue the discussion we were having earlier now that I'm a little better prepared for it."

Harry nodded though he was still confused, a confusion that was made no better when Fred and George started to snicker uncontrollably.

A while later after Ron and the twins had helped Harry finish off the chocolate frogs they had brought him and Oliver had assured him that the loss of the match was by no means his fault, Madam Pomfrey shooed them all out to let Harry get some rest.

They all headed back to Gryffindor tower and as he had insisted Hermione was waiting for Oliver in the common room, though she was unaware of his return thanks to the massive book she was reading.

He snatched the book out of her hands and unceremoniously tossed it onto the couch, eliciting an indignant squeak from her before hauling her up out of her seat and dragging her back out of the portrait hole with him.

"What exactly is going on between those two?" Ginny asked, turning to her older brothers.

"I think I'd like an answer to that too." Percy said as he approached them after witnessing Oliver's uncharacteristically aggressive behavior.

In all the years he had known the other seventh year he had never known him to be anything other than laid back about everything besides his Quidditch.

Fred and George exchanged a look before George said; "You'd need to ask them that, 'cause I'm not too sure myself."

Whilst their friends were still discussing his odd behavior Oliver was dragging Hermione through the corridors of Hogwarts, looking for an empty, unlocked classroom. As he rattled yet another handle Hermione finally lost her temper.

"If you'd kindly unhand me maybe I could help." She snapped. He let go of her arm and she tapped the door handle with her wand, whispering "_Alohamora_."

"I can't believe I didn't think of that." He said shaking his head as he pushed her into the classroom and shut the door behind him.

She crossed to the other side of the room and sat on the window ledge waiting for him to talk. He leaned on the classroom door, effectively blocking her escape and surveyed the little spitfire sat across from him.

Not many things made him lose his cool the way she had.

Normally he was one of the most calm, collected people going off of the Quidditch pitch, but something about Hermione just destroyed his normal composure, had done ever since she had saved their hides by charming Harry's glasses to repel the rain during a match in his fifth year and saved their hides if he were honest.

"Not only do I not appreciate being walked in on in the shower, but I don't think you're criticism was entirely fair." He told her finally.

"I apologize for barging in you." She replied. "I was angry and worried about Harry and I wasn't thinking, but you were being stupid and selfish." She finished crossly.

"I was not! I just happen to take Quidditch seriously." He replied.

"You don't say." She muttered sarcastically.

"There's nothing wrong with being focused on something. I would have thought that you of all people would have understood that. Besides Percy I've never met anyone as psycho about their school work as you are." He argued.

"Did you just call me psycho?" she asked, totally missing the point. "That's rich coming from someone as fanatical about Quidditch as you are!" she shouted at him as she tried to move him out of the way so she could get out of the door he was leaning against.

To her chagrin he wasn't budging and she was far too small in comparison to be able to force him to.

"Could you please move!" she demanded.

"No we're not done here." He responded, refusing to get out of her way.

"I have nothing more to say to you. I think I was right, you think I was wrong and I apologized for barging in on you in the shower, so let's just agree to disagree and end this pointless conversation." she insisted.

"Fine." He snapped as he moved to open the door for her. Just as she was about to walk through it he pulled her close and whispered in her ear once more.

"You really ought to be grateful though Hermione, because if I were any less of a gentleman like most of the blokes at this school I could insist that it would be only fair for me to see you in the same state of undress."

She looked up at him with her mouth hanging open in shock and he felt a vicious sense of satisfaction at the soft pink flush of embarrassment that was spreading across her face. Eventually though she composed herself.

"That will never happen." She told him hotly as she yanked her arm out of his grip and stomped away back to the common room he had dragged her out of.

Oliver leaned against the doorframe and watched her go, wondering why he felt so disappointed by her response.

Hermione rushed straight up to her dorm room when she reached Gryffindor tower, brushing off Ron and Ginny's questions to escape to the relative solitude of her curtained bed. She flung herself down on it, fervently hoping that Ginny would get the hint and not follow her up. She really didn't want to have to relate the conversation she had just had with Oliver to her.

The problem wasn't so much what he had said as the images it had conjured up in her head. Well that and the way his deep, baritone voice with its soft Scottish burr always affected her. Between the two she had been immediately assaulted with intentions very contradictory to the homicidal ones she had had earlier when she'd been so freaked out about Harry falling off of his broom.

She groaned softly into her pillow wondering just why it was that Harry's maniacal Quidditch captain managed to affect her in ways that no other guy had ever managed to before and just how she was going to face him at breakfast the next morning. Hopefully he would call an early practice and she wouldn't have to, but with his Seeker still in the infirmary she highly doubted it.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 2

Present 

Percy smirked a very un-Percy-like smirk as he watched Hermione pale at the mention of talking to Oliver. He'd had to put up with his unlikely best friend ranting on and on about how stubborn and irritating Hermione was for the last two days and knew from experience that it was likely to last at least another couple of days.

After the incident during the Quidditch match when Hermione had charmed Harry's glasses to repel water Oliver had droned on about how brilliant Percy's little brother's best friend was for a whole week.

In all the time he'd known him he'd never seen anyone get to his normally cool, calm and collected friend like Hermione had.

As odd a combination as most people thought they were, Oliver truly was Percy's best friend and he for one thought that it was about time that he found someone to be as passionate about as he was about his Quidditch. And from her reaction it seemed that the object of Oliver's unconscious affections might well feel the same way.

Now all Percy had to do was make them see it. Thankfully if Crookshanks had impregnated Oliver's cat he and Hermione would be forced to talk. Hopefully that would make Percy's mission a little easier.

"Oh! Oh OK, I guess I'll go talk to him then." Hermione said finally.

And with that she left the common room with the female cat still held in her arms and Crookshanks still following.

'He's just another stupid boy. You are not nervous about speaking to him. You will not let him embarrass you or drag you into another argument. You are in control.' became her mantra on the way down to the Quidditch pitch in a futile attempt calm her frantic nerves.

Unfortunately all of it went straight out of the window when she saw him jump off of his broom and stride towards her looking impossibly handsome in his Quidditch kit.

"Um hi Oliver. Percy told me that this was your cat and I thought we should talk because she and Crookshanks have been getting rather um… friendly. She finally managed to stutter out.

"Oh really and just how friendly have they been getting?" he asked in his soft Scottish burr, thoroughly enjoying the way she turned crimson. She'd blushed so prettily the day of their argument that he'd been dying to make her do it again. 'Hang on a minute; did I just think that Hermione was pretty?' He thought suddenly.

"Err I really don't want to think about that." She admitted, cursing her English rose complexion for making her embarrassment with the subject so obvious.

"No I don't think I do either." He agreed, no longer questioning the appeal of her flushed face.

"Well I think one of us needs to because Crookshanks hasn't been neutered." She told him, desperately trying to ignore the things his dazzling, mischievous smile was doing to her insides.

"Oh well we might have a problem then because Kimba hasn't been spayed either." he told her. "I was going to let her mate once I found her the right Tom, but if your common little alley cat has had his paws all over her I guess there isn't much chance of that." He joked, trying to dispel the panic he could see rising in her eyes.

Hermione however didn't get the joke instead she immediately saw red. It was one thing to hold her tongue and be the better person when the Slytherin's called her a common little mudblood, but there was no way she was going to stand back and let someone from her own house belittle her beloved pet.

"How dare you blame Crookshanks for this?" She hissed, thrusting his cat at him. "If it wasn't for your little hussy following him around we wouldn't be in this mess." she insisted. And with that she scooped up Crookshanks, turned on her heel and stalked back up to the castle in a foul mood.

Oliver stared after her in shock and then seeing that she wasn't planning on stopping, called after her.

"Hermione it was just a joke! Hermione?"

She either didn't hear him or wasn't listening because she didn't even turn around.

"Stubborn, infuriating wench, it was just a bloody joke!" Oliver muttered to himself as he watched her go.

"I think she's been called a 'common little mudblood' by the Slytherins one too many times to find that one funny though mate." Said George appearing seemingly out of nowhere.

"That's disgusting." Oliver spat, so angrily that George was fairly certain that the next Slytherin to utter those words to Hermione would find themselves in the infirmary.

"I know mate, but other than the pranks we keep pulling on them in retaliation there's not much we can do." George grumbled unhappily in reply.

"I just don't understand why they're so hung up on being purebloods. I mean there are loads of pureblood families who don't take that attitude. Both of our families are pure-blooded but you wouldn't catch any of us thinking like that." Oliver grimaced.

"Believe me mate I know, I don't get it either. It's certainly no secret that my Dad hasn't gotten far in the Ministry because of his fascination with Muggles." George confided. Then he laughed.

"You know he grilled Harry and Hermione for hours the first time they stayed at our place. He asked them so many questions that Harry just got stumped in the end, but not Hermione and he was asking some really technical questions. Apparently it isn't just the wizarding world that considers her a bit of a prodigy."

"I think that's the most annoying thing about the Slytherin's insulting her. She's probably smarter than all of them put together." Oliver agreed.

"Ah bollocks I'm going to have to apologise to her now." He said, wincing at the thought of the ear bashing he was likely to get.

George grinned as he nodded, but patted him on the back in sympathy nonetheless.

When Oliver thought about it later and think about it he did, he realised that the unholy light that suddenly lit George's blue eyes should have warned him to cut and run while he still could. But even six years at Hogwarts couldn't have prepared him for the following conversation.

"So what exactly is going on between you two anyway?" The redhead asked slyly.

"What you mean other than getting into an argument every time we speak to each other?" Oliver snorted derisively, thinking that George was just fooling around.

"Well I think it only fair to warn you that if you plan on making a move on her you'll have to ask Weasley family permission first. Just like Harry had to when he asked Ginny out." George said, making his captain's mouth hang open in shock.

"WHAT!" he yelled once he'd finally stopped catching flies.

"You heard me." George replied taking great enjoyment from Oliver's shocked expression. "Ah so denial is not just a river in Egypt." The prankster twin quipped as Oliver's mouth opened and shut several times while he tried to think of a reply.

"You're as barmy as Dumbledore." He said finally, turning his back on George and heading back up to the castle after Hermione.

"You know Harry only had to ask me, Fred, Percy and Ron, but I think I'm going to make you write to Bill and Charlie too after that comment." George yelled after him.

Oliver didn't turn around but flipped him the finger in response making George cackle like a hag. Eventually though he regained his composure and raced off to share his discovery with his twin.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 3

"Ah I see you spoke to Hermione then." Percy said as Oliver climbed through the portrait hole with a face like thunder.

Sparing a glance at his sister, Percy saw that she too was having difficulty hiding her amusement at the fact that Hermione and Oliver had both been scowling upon their return to the common room after speaking to each other.

The irony of the fact that they were squabbling like an old married couple when they both insisted that there was nothing going on was not lost on either of the two Weasley's.

"Yeah I spoke to her, mores the pity." Oliver mumbled the last words for fear of Ginny's infamous Bat Bogey Hex.

Turning to Percy he said; "Is there some sort of hereditary insanity in your family? Because I think someone needs to get George's head read for him. Some of the shit he was coming out with a minute ago made him sound positively certifiable."

Percy frowned. If he were honest he'd often wondered whether all of the marrying of distant family members in pureblood families could result in that very problem. It happened to Muggles if they interbred and really, there was little else that could explain Lucius Malfoy.

"Perce you in there?" Oliver asked, well used to Percy's mental wanderings.

"What? Oh….oh right yes. Well can you tell me what he said?" Percy questioned finally.

"I don't know. He was rambling some shit about Egypt, Hermione and Weasley family permission." The Quidditch captain replied, running a hand through his short, wavy dark hair.

At this Ginny gave up pretending to be disinterested and chocked on her pumpkin juice, spraying it across the table and all over Percy.

"Um... Sorry Perce." She said sheepishly as she mopped u p the spilt juice with the towels Oliver summoned for her.

Percy blinked owlishly at her then smiled as he realised why she had attempted to inhale her beverage and had ended up giving him a pumpkin juice shower.

"Quite understandable Gin dear." He replied understandingly. He turned his attention back to Oliver who was looking at the pair of Weasley's as though they should be in St Mungo's.

"Did George by any chance mention the River Nile?" Percy questioned him, making Ginny swallow her mouthful of juice for fear of giving a repeat performance.

"Yeah he did. But that wasn't even the most bizarre thing he said. I mean he was that out of it that he actually suggested that I was planning on asking Hermione out." Oliver told him concernedly.

As the words left Oliver's mouth Ginny immediately slapped her hand over her mouth, which was thankfully pumpkin juice free this time.

Percy smirked at her across the table, quite enjoying her discomfort. Seconds later it was Ginny who was smirking after she kicked him in the shin under the table.

Percy scowled while Ginny beamed and Oliver just looked confused.

Eventually though he gave up trying to understand them and asked: "So where is Hermione?"

Ginny surrendered any pretence of normalcy and bolted out of the common room with both hands clamped over her traitorous mouth. The two seventh years watched her go with very different expressions.

Before Oliver could say anything Percy said; "She went up to bed."

Oliver nodded, then said; "Dare I ask?" pointing at the portrait hole that Ginny had bolted through and was still howling with laughter on the other side of.

Percy shook his head, biting his lip, trying and failing to be more mature than his sister and not laugh. Oliver shook his head and headed up the stairs to Hermione's dorm after pressing the secret button that allowed boy's access, muttering about Weasley family insanity.

It was a testament to how hard Percy was laughing that the Head Boy didn't even comment on Oliver's knowledge of the secret button.

Oliver could still hear Percy's hysterics when he reached Hermione's dorm room and made a mental note to tease his friend about the fact that he giggled like a girl.

The room, like every other Gryffindor dorm room, was circular with a number of curtained four-poster beds. There were four in this room, one each for Lavender, Parvati, Hermione and Ginny who had been put in here because she was the only Gryffindor girl in her year.

Kimba, who had followed him up, leapt straight up on to on of the beds and curled up between Crookshanks and a sleeping Hermione. Oliver was struck dumb by how sweet Hermione looked fast asleep with her hair loose from its usual bun and an old-fashioned white cotton Victorian nightgown on.

'Oh well there goes my apology.' He thought once his brain was capable of moving past 'wow she's actually seriously pretty' and the resulting astonishment that this thought caused.

Spotting an inkpot and some parchment on her bedside table he decided to write her a letter of apology instead. Settling down in the squishy armchair beside her bed he set about trying to write something that wouldn't cause them to get into another fight.

It took him longer than his Charms homework normally took, though that may have been because he kept stopping to gaze at the slumbering girl that was currently turning his well-ordered world on its head.

By the time he was finished he knew he would have to leave if he didn't want Hermione's room mates to find him there when they came up to bed. Leaving the note by her bed and deciding to let Kimba sleep on, he left quietly after stealing one last affectionate glance at Hermione's slumbering form.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 4

The next morning when Hermione awoke she knocked Oliver's letter to the floor as she turned off her alarm clock. Puzzled she picked it up, wondering why she didn't remember leaving a piece of parchment on top of her alarm clock.

When she glanced at the bottom line her heart began to pound. She settled back into bed whereupon she noticed that Oliver's cat Kimba was curled up with Crookshanks at the foot of her bed. Smiling at how cute they looked she began to read the letter.

_Dear Hermione,_

_The comment I made about Crookshanks was only meant to be a joke but I see now how easily it could be misinterpreted and I apologise for upsetting you. The comment was also rather inaccurate as I am well aware that Crookshanks is by no means a common alley cat._

_After making some inquiries during my search for a suitable mate for Kimba I discovered that Crookshanks is indeed the only other half Kneazle cat at Hogwarts. I had intended to ask you if you would object to Kimba bearing him a litter, but it seems that our cats have skipped that particular formality!_

_I hope that next time we speak we can manage to do so without falling out, especially as we may now have to speak more often if our cats are going to be parents. I apologise (again!) for not saying all of this to you in person, but when I came up to your dorm to do so you were already asleep._

_Regards, Oliver. _

Hermione dropped the letter with an expression of absolute shock. She was finding it rather hard to believe that Oliver Wood was actually reasonably eloquent. Let alone the fact that he had been in her room while she slept.

She may have had a crush on him for quite a while, but she'd never considered him to be even vaguely intelligent, she'd always assumed that any brain cells he may have had were reserved for Quidditch. Well Quidditch and girl's maybe, but there had been little doubt in her mind that he was just a run of the mill handsome Quidditch jock.

She'd always consoled her self that her crush was merely a physical response to an attractive male and she'd been quite happy to believe that her feelings for him were purely a result of over active teenage hormones. Now however, he'd proven that he was at least intelligent enough to write an eloquent apology and heaven help her she'd always found intelligence attractive.

What in Merlin's name was she going to do? Ignoring her attraction to him had been hard enough when she'd thought him just some dumb Quidditch jock. Now that she knew that he was at least reasonably intelligent it was going to be damn near impossible.

But by far the absolute worst thing about the whole situation was that she knew that there was no way that he would ever return her feelings. Not only was he two years her senior but the boy had his own fan club for Merlin's sake!

She groaned aloud when she realised that would have to talk to him more often now that his cat was most likely pregnant by Crookshanks. At least before this fiasco she'd been able to ignore her crush on him by avoiding him wherever possible.

It wasn't as though it had been difficult either considering that they had little to do with one another. Sure they had Harry and the Weasley's in common and they were both Gryffindors, but other than that they really had no reason to talk.

She was being harsh she knew, because he had always been friendly toward her, but it was easier to pretend that he was an ignorant jerk. If she were honest with herself though she would have to admit that if anything, she had been the ignorant jerk of the two of them.

Every time he'd attempted to talk to her she'd made some excuse to be elsewhere or pretended to be too busy studying to talk. It had been really rather rude of her now that she thought about it, but avoiding contact with him had been the only way she'd known how to deal with her crush. And in spite of her normally polite and friendly nature it still seemed like a pretty good idea.

Yep that was exactly what she was going to do. She'd talk to him only when she absolutely had to and avoid any and all unnecessary conversations with him. And if she came across as a bitch? Well so much the better, at least that way he might start avoiding her too.

Yes, making him want to avoid her was definitely a plan. She was sure now that this was the most sensible course of action. So why did the thought of Oliver avoiding her make her want to cry?

Out on the Quidditch pitch Oliver was similarly preoccupied with his own thoughts of Hermione. Unfortunately for him he wasn't snuggled up in a warm, safe dorm room bed, but out on a cold, wet, Bludger filled Quidditch pitch.

As another cannon ball-like Bludger whistled past his head in his third near miss of the morning Angelina finally lost her temper with her perilously preoccupied captain.

"Oi Oliver! Are you actually trying to get yourself killed or is it just a happy coincidence?" she hollered at him across the pitch.

"You'll have to forgive our dear captain Angel." Fred cut in, bellowing over the buffeting winds. "You see the poor boy's gone and fallen in love."

Oliver glared daggers at him, if looks could kill George figured that his twin would be six feet under right about now.

If Oliver was hoping that that would be the end of it he was sorely disappointed.

"Ooh who's the lucky girl?" Alicia asked as the team converged on their irritated captain.

"She must be pretty special if she caught Oliver's eye" Katie mused. "Half the girls at Hogwarts have been trying to get a date with the elusive Oliver Wood for just about forever."

Oliver didn't answer so his team ploughed on. "So do we know this girl or is she from outside of school?" Harry asked, thoroughly enjoying the chance to embarrass poor Oliver in retaliation for all of the cold, wet Quidditch practices his fanatical captain had subjected them to recently.

"Oh yeah you definitely know her." George grinned.

Harry's stomach dropped. He hoped like hell he didn't mean Ginny. Fred saw Harry's stricken look and hastened to reassure him.

"Don't worry Harry he doesn't mean Gin."

Harry grinned weakly and the poor boy's relief was almost palpable. Fred and George grinned at each other, both pleased that their sister's boyfriend so obviously adored her and eager to see whether Harry would be quite so happy when he found out who they were really referring to.

Angelina however was tired of her boyfriend and his twin's antics.

"So who is it then? Come on Gred don't keep us in suspense!" she demanded excitedly.

Fred took one last look at Oliver's furious expression and grinning like a Cheshire cat said; "Hermione."

Oliver looked ready to kill but poor Harry was utterly confused.

"Sorry Fred could you say that again because I could have sworn that you said Hermione."

"He did say Hermione." George clarified with a grin that was rivalled only by his twin's.

"Yep, our favourite bookworm is the poor unsuspecting soul that's got our beloved captain's head all in a spin." Fred confirmed.

Oliver groaned and put his head in his hands in an effort to hide from the tsunami of questions that his team were undoubtedly going subject him to.

Unsurprisingly it took all of five seconds for one of them to ask the inevitable.

"Wow! Is this true?" Katie questioned him incredulously.

"Of course it's not true." Oliver gritted out through clenched teeth once he could finally bring himself to lift his head from his hands and stop employing the Ostrich method of dealing with his friends.

"We can't even be in the same room without getting into a row. Those two are just bloody barmy." He told her, pointing accusingly at the twins who just beamed as though he had paid them a compliment.

Angelina however was unconvinced, she'd seen the way Oliver had looked at the petite bookworm when she'd saved their hides during a Quidditch match two years before and had been convinced at the time that he was going to kiss her.

"You know sometimes when two people are attracted to each other but don't know how to deal with it they can end up having silly misunderstandings. Are you sure that's not what's happening with you and Hermione?"

"No we just don't get on. And since when did become a bloody psychiatrist?" Oliver demanded, gripping his broom so tightly in his temper that the wood of its shaft was audibly creaking under the pressure of his large, strong hands.

"O.K, O.K no need to get defensive." Angelina said quickly, holding up her hands in surrender, hoping to pacify her furious captain.

"I'm not getting defensive." Oliver insisted angrily.

"I was just trying to…" he trailed off as he caught the poorly hidden grins on his friend's faces.

"Oh bugger the lot of you." He exclaimed angrily.

And with that final comment on the subject he flew off back to the castle without even changing out of his Quidditch kit, leaving his team to stare after him in shock.

Finally George broke them out of their collective reverie.

"You know that's the second day on the trot that he's stormed off after I've tried to gently broach the subject of his crush on Hermione." George said, oblivious to the glares this drew from the team's three chasers.

"Falling in love has apparently turned our captain into a right girly drama queen." Fred agreed, equally oblivious.

"You call that gentle!" Katie bellowed at her boyfriend. "That was about as gentle as a bloody Bludger!"

"We were only trying to help." He replied sheepishly.

"Yeah we were only trying to help." Fred argued.

Then he caught the daggers his own girlfriend was shooting at him with her eyes and decided to shut up before he got himself into anymore trouble, something that his Mother would have considered a miracle.

"Look boys we know you were trying to help. Well that and embarrass poor Oliver, but he's a lot more subtle about these things than you two are." Alicia told them, hoping to head off the argument that was threatening to erupt between her friends.

"It's been ages since he's even shown an interest in a girl and I swear to God I will kick your arse all over this pitch if you screw up his chances with the one girl he might actually like." Angelina warned the twins.

"All right, all right we'll be good." Fred promised.

"Besides, I'm as pleased as you are to see him taking an interest in the opposite sex again, 'cause I was beginning to wonder if he was batting for the other team."

"Not that it would be a problem if Oliver was gay." George quickly amended on his twin's behalf at the angry glares Fred's comment elicited from the girls.

"The problem," Alicia began, glaring pointedly at the twins, "is that he's had so many girls after him simply because of his position on the team."

"Well, that and the fact that he's not exactly hard on the eyes." Katie added.

"Hey!" George protested.

"Well he's not." Angelina agreed.

"Angelina!" Fred exclaimed.

"Oh shut up, it's not like you two have anything to worry about. Just because we think he's good looking doesn't mean we'd contemplate dating him, he's like a big brother to us." Angelina replied.

"**Anyway**, as I was trying to say before I was so rudely interrupted," Alicia began, "was that Oliver was put off of dating any of the girls at school because most of them just want to date a Quidditch captain and don't really care what Oliver's like as a person."

"That's pretty crappy." Harry sympathised, knowing exactly what it felt like to have people only want you because of what you were rather than who you were.

"Are you mad? That's like every teenaged boy's fantasy! I don't what the bloody hell he's complaining about." George exclaimed, earning another furious glare from Katie.

"Yes well Oliver is obviously a lot less superficial than you." Katie hissed at him condescendingly.

The arguing going on around Harry faded into the background as what the twins had told him finally began to sink in and he began to panic about how to handle the situation. For one thing he wasn't entirely sure that he liked the idea of Oliver hitting on Hermione, being as over protective of her as he was. For another he didn't like the idea of keeping things from either of his best friends, but was pretty sure that Oliver wouldn't him to let Hermione in on this.

Finally the incessant bickering of his team mates brought Harry back to reality and immediately managed to get on his last nerve.

Eventually though he managed to surprise them all into silence when he shouted: "Could you lot shut up arguing long enough to tell me what I should say to Hermione about this?"


End file.
